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Defending champ Scott faces long odds for Masters repeat

Aussie shoots 4-over 76, falls six shots off lead

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Adam Scott’s bid to become the first repeat Masters champion since Tiger Woods in 2001-02 took a major blow in Saturday’s third round.

With a 4-over 76 Saturday at Augusta National, Scott slid down the leaderboard instead of making a move up it. Scott began the day 3 under for the tourney and tied for third place and finished the day with a 1-over 217 tourney total and tied for 16th.

“I’m disappointed, but a good round (Sunday) could go a long, long way,” said Scott, who quickly headed to the range following the round to work on Saturday’s shortcomings. “It’s not the end of the world. There are a lot of people between me and the leaders. If I can play a good front nine, anything can happen on the back, and it would be fun to post a number and sit in the clubhouse and watch.”

Though Scott’s chances of winning his second straight Masters title are improbable, they’re not impossible.

Jack Burke (1956) and Gary Player (1978) each overcame eight-stroke deficits in the final round to capture the green jacket. And in 1996, Nick Faldo famously rallied from six shots back of Greg Norman to capture the title.

For Scott to make the same charge, and somewhat avenge the collapse of fellow Australian Norman, he will need the kind of start he had on Thursday when he played the front nine in 3-under 33, and not his starts to the last two rounds, where he is a total of 7 over on the front.

Scott bogeyed the first hole for the second straight day, and two holes later ran into all sorts of trouble on the par-3 fourth, missing the green and then lipping out a bogey putt to finish with a double bogey on the hole. He followed with another bogey on No. 5 to fall over par for the first time all tournament.

After getting back to even par with a birdie on No. 8, Scott capped a rough front nine with another bogey on No. 9, making the turn at 40.

“I just compounded my mistakes early with a couple three putts and got off on the wrong foot today,” said Scott, who had three three-putts on the opening nine. “I put myself in bad locations and wasn’t able to recover.”

Unlike Friday’s second round, Scott couldn’t offset his front-nine woes with a stellar back. He dropped two 2 over with a bogey on No. 14 when he missed the green and recorded his only birdie on the back when he stuck his approach on No. 17 to six feet and finally got a key putt to fall.

“This is a very hard course to pull shots in, even with opportunities at 13 and 15,” Scott said of the two reachable par 5s on the back. “I didn’t manage to do it. I just fought really hard, but I couldn’t get any of those early shots back.”